The more the astute of you who realise week 26 is the 6 month mark, I guess this is my 6 month anniversary of being here in Vietnam, and it's been every bit the experience I expected, and so much more!!!
I can't really avoid talking about the rain again, even though last week's post was all about the rain and floods. Even as I type this the rain storms continue, knocking out my three favourite TV stations - HBO, Star Movies, and True Sports!!! Luckily no such disaster occurred last night as I watched the Chelsea vs Liverpool game (0-1 to Liverpool, but you all knew that right?). John my colleague (and Chelsea fan), and his girlfriend Michelle had cooked a meal, and I must say it was pretty tasty, a great warm up to the main event, as Liverpool broke Chelsea's 86 unbeaten games at 'Home' record. It had rained last night and was heavy enough to have me wear my rather large raincoat, which meant I drove all the way to John's house on a motorbike without realising I didn't have my helmet on!
The rain has got to my brain I think! It certainly has got to my wardrobe in more ways than one, as just today as I pulled out a pair of pants (trousers) which I haven't needed to wear for weeks, and they had mould on them!!! In the wardrobe!! And I really don't have that many clothes to be throwing away! In fact, recently I notice that some of my clothes seem to be dirtier after being washed than before the wash! And don't get me started on how difficult it is to try and get clothes dry after washing! Thank god for some room to dry clothes in the house, because there isn't a radiator in sight! Today was a great example of how the weather affects my routine.... because the morning was reasonably dry, I decided to rush home at lunch to get some washing out, this meant having to settle for some bread (2000 dong - 8 pence) and some instant noodles for lunch at home... getting the washing out was one thing, but I then spent the entire afternoon watching the clouds swarm overhead, and I got so paranoid that the rain would come, I left work early to get my washing inside! You'll be happy to know I managed it... and now I won't have to wait a week to have dry clean clothes! The picture below shows you just what kind of fashion I have had to resort too in these desperate times! (see below)
Tuesday night this week was yet another night filled with wet weather incidents, as literally seconds after I had arrived home and sat down for a beer with my neighbour, a rain storm began, and soon had the next door cafe flooded within minutes.... see below....
The interesting part of this picture, is that inside the cafe, two girls had just finished their cooking class, and were just tucking into their food, as the water began to run into the cafe, within ten minutes the girls were eating their food in 3 inches of water around them! It was quite the amusing sight!
Leaving the rain behind us for now, I'll just mention a few things that have been happening at work recently. As I mentioned last week, we now have two German volunteers who bring another cultural element to the mix, and add a fourth nation, to the now multicultural mix of Vietnamese, Australian, English and German. I must also say I admire their desire to try and offer their expertise through the use of a second language (English with Vietnamese staff), I have to admit I still struggle to understand the Australians as much as anyone! I think it's all the sun that goes to their head! Just kidding - but I have learnt a fair bit about the Australian mentality that is very different from my own!
So, not that I like to use these blogs to publicise myself as an OT, but i do want to talk a little about my work, and my best achievement of the past couple of weeks has definitely been with a boy called Sy, who is a real trooper (works really hard) in physio. He has Cerebral Palsy and finds it difficult to walk normally and has to use a frame to walk by himself. I was told he walks a few hundred yards to see his grandmother, and having seen the state of some roads in the countryside here, that's a real achievement. few weeks ago I managed, quite randomly, to find a tricycle, which had some straps on it, and wondered if Sy would have the strength in his legs to use it. When Sy first tried to ride the tricycle, he just couldn't push the pedals hard enough to make the wheels turn, as his feet and legs are badly affected by his condition.... this was going to be a problem! This is a problem we have, when we put him on a stationery bike seat in the clinic. But in the clinic, we bandage his feet to the pedals... so, using this idea, we tried the same technique on the tricycle, and it worked! Now I know what you are thinking.... you can't bandage the kids feet to the tricycle every time he wants to use it! - and you'd be right, we couldn't do that so another solution was required!
The solution had to be something a little more inventive. So realising we needed to simulate the added support given by the bandages, I figured we could simply strap his shoes to the pedals, this would act in the same way as the bandage, but still would leave the problems of a shoe being strapped to the pedals. In the end, we bought some new sports sandals, (with the normal Velcro straps), and made some additional straps, out of additional Velcro, which we used to strap the sandals to the pedals... this would allow for the shoes to be taken off the pedals easily, in case of heavy rain! (see picture of finished tricycle below)
Sy's father took the tricycle home today after we completed the final trials, and I hope Sy will soon by a little more mobile around his neighbourhood. We will go and visit him this week to see how he's going! I think the state of the roads where Sy lives may be the deciding factor in how mush he can use the tricycle to get around.
Other work stuff, has included more visits to An, a boy with Muscular Dystrophy, who was hit, in whilst his wheelchair, by a drunken motorcyclist, breaking his femur bone. This has left An with a plaster leg cast for almost 6 months, as surgery is not an option. This leaves him unable to sit up, which contributes to the already existing weakening of his arms and chest muscles. Our major contribution to An's situation has been to design a specially shaped (triangular) wedge cushion, which allows him to at least partially sit up, and coming up with fun ways for him to strengthen his chest and breathing muscles - by blowing up balloons, and my personal favourite, playing the harmonica, (which he told me he had done previously) - though i don't think his neighbours are so happy with the introduction of the harmonica. Signing a person's plaster is a very common thing in the UK, but not here. However, An allowed me to start this trend, and write on his plaster cast as you can see from the picture below!
So I promise I'll try and leave the rain out of the next weekly update. Here's to a dry week! Hmmm...Regards from Vietnam
Dan
1 comment:
Hi Dan
as usual your post is full of interesting news - a great mix of personal and professional discussions. The rain looks dreadful - is it cold rain or warm rain? (not sure if either one is better than the other).
It's great to see some ideas of what you are doing out there - real problem solving skills in progress and clear consideration of meaning within a person's environment. It's not often we have to consider the issues of roads and I guess however much we moan and complain about resources and provision of equipment it doesn't compare at all.
Sarah tells me you are back for the new year so look forward to seeing you then and arranging your keynote lecture for us.
Take care. Angela
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